Attached please find the 2010 Council for Higher Education
Accreditation (CHEA) Recognition Policy and
Procedures containing revisions approved by the CHEA
Board of Directors on June 28, 2010. Accrediting organizations
seeking CHEA recognition that initiate a review at the June 2011
meeting of the CHEA Committee on Recognition and thereafter will be
considered under the 2010 policy. Accrediting organizations
that are committed to review at the November 2010 or March 2011
committee meetings will continue under the 2006 policy.

CHEA began work on revisions to the policy in March 2010. The
committee on recognition, made up of individuals from institutions,
accrediting organizations and the public, shared initial proposed
revisions with CHEA institutional members, CHEA- and USDE-recognized
accrediting organizations, the Washington-based higher education
associations as well as all others in the CHEA database of more than
11,000 institutions, organizations and individuals.

CHEA solicited comments on the proposed revisions during April 1
– May 31, 2010. The committee on recognition met on June 2, 2010 and
reviewed the comments, making additional modifications based on the
responses received. CHEA then circulated the modifications during
June 2 – 16, 2010, once again soliciting comments from the 11,000
recipients. CHEA also hosted an open meeting (May 11, 2010), an open
conference call (June 2, 2010) as well as meeting with the CHEA
Specialized/National Advisory Panel and the Council of Regional
Accrediting Commissions.

A total of 178 comments were received during both comment
periods. The committee met on June 20-21 and made its final
modifications based on the comments, recommending final revisions to
the CHEA Board of Directors. The board approved the revisions
as presented by the committee at its June 28, 2010 meeting,
following a review of all comments that CHEA received.

The 2010 revisions to the policy strengthen CHEA’s expectations
of accrediting organizations with regard to transparency and
financial independence. They initiate scrutiny of international
activity and call for accreditor attention to degree mills and
accreditation mills. The revisions include greater scrutiny of
accrediting organizations between recognition reviews. The remaining
changes affect the recognition process, e.g., setting time periods
between successive attempts to achieve CHEA recognition.

Strong CHEA recognition is part of a strong accreditation
enterprise and sustaining of self-regulation and peer/professional
review. We thank the many individuals who participated in this
important process and took the time to share their views with us.
The comments that were offered resulted in valuable changes to the
initial proposed revisions.

A national advocate and
institutional voice for self-regulation of academic quality through
accreditation, CHEA is an association of 3,000 degree-granting
colleges and universities and recognizes 60 institutional and
programmatic accrediting organizations. For more information, visit
CHEA’s Website at www.chea.org.
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